Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Pillow Revelations

I'm discovering with sewing that I need LOTS of visuals to "get it." Reading a pattern or book doesn't always click with me, but visuals do almost immediately. I'm also finding that the next best thing to a step-by-step pictorial guiding the way is actually taking apart what I'm interested in making. After acquiring that box of trim, I immediately wanted to make fancy trimmed-out pillows. The kind of ornate pillows that I had around, but always assumed only a pillowperson could make. However, with my building confidence, I reasoned that those skills couldn't be that far out of my reach. Rather than buy new pillow forms, I decided to simply take apart my trimmed pillows that I wasn't exactly fond of. The goal was to figure out how they were constructed and recover in my choice of fabric + trim.

With my seam ripper in hand, I did just that. I carefully dissected a pillow. I learned how the trim was attached and backtracked in my head just how this pillow was made. It all clicked. Like when you figure out something foreign and suddenly it's right there and you can't believe you ever thought it was hard in the first place?!

Although I had originally intended to choose different trim it became clear to me that I should repurpose the green trim I had just removed. It complimented my new fabric perfectly and was still in good condition. I used the old plaid fabric squares to measure new floral ones and carefully sandwiched the trim back in just like the professional pillowmaker before me had done.

Sewing a pillow with trim is hardly different than making a pillow without trim (again, this to me equals major Revelation. Do you hear the bells?) One more to switch out.

A tired plaid pillow is now a fresh floral. And I sure learned a lot about trim. After that, I built upon this easy pillow trim lesson by reupholstering the chair, a rocker and a bench with new fabric and a corded trim. Believe it! Visuals coming later this week. : )

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